RoadwayR

It's going to be very interesting to see what goes on at Avon Lake in the next few years.

You know what is trouble-free? CNG.........

Didn't think this has anything to do with Isuzu in North America. But, if they are successful in Asia in this vocation, why not give it a shot here?

I don't know what the deal is on this, but it's not like upfitters never blame vehicle manufacturers for things they can't figure out. Or using the wrong components just because 'that's what we always use' or had a bunch sitting on the shelf. Remember Navistar had a big hand in this truck, can't see them making these kinds of mistakes. But, you never know.... Our company has a bunch of Silverado 6500 dumps on order, I'll let you all know they are set up.

Saw an International CV on the road for the first time today. Crew cab utility body belonging to an electrical contractor.

No doubt Ford sees Workhorse's stunning success in the drone field as inspiration to make this bold more, fully in step with Hackett's head-in-the-clouds (or ass in the ditch?) vision for a reimagined Ford. But what about Avon Lake? I though Ford had a good thing going there, perfect plant for relatively low-volume commercial truck production, all under one roof. It appears that commercial vehicle production continues at Avon Lake for the duration of the new UAW contract, the change to EV's will be in 2023.

Nice, but I would have gone with a bit longer wheelbase!

I went to that show a couple of years ago. Interesting to say the least!

Yellow fire apparatus belongs in airports, nowhere else!

The 475 was a version of the earlier 477 for medium duty trucks. Sometime around 1977 Ford replaced the horrible 3 piece intake manifold with a much better 1 piece design.

Looks like it would make a good heavy wrecker!

DTNA seems to be doing a lot with Fuso. Remind me what did Volvo do with UD besides pull them out of North America?

Totally agree about the rear springs, but rear air suspension is an option and it will be interesting to see how many buyers go for it. One big advantage that option will buy them is ambulance business. Around here most all the squads are Ram 5500's, and they are all upfitted with Kelderman air ride rear suspension. That can't be cheap, but it's necessary in that application. Frame on the new GM/NAV's looks O.K. to 26.000#'s GVW me, but not as good as the M2's (I consider to be the best now). Better than either the Ford or Ram class 4/5's though.

No connection to seller: https://www.firetruckmall.com/AvailableTruck/09719/1979-Ford-F800-Pumper KInd of a rare truck. The '475' was a version of the old Super Duty V-8 for medium duty trucks, which Ford needed to offer to stay competitive with the Chevy 427 and IH 446. The old 391 XD was reliable but always down on power. Needless to say the 475 was a tremendous gas hog and few were sold. In 1979 Ford introduced the 'truck' Lima 429, which offered better fuel economy and essentially the same power as the 475. I always wondered what took Ford so long to adapt the Lima for truck use.

The D-860 was supposed to have been replaced with the 1960 DB-7000. The DB-7000 only came with the 6V-71 in it and used the 1960 Chevy pickup cab. Enough fleet customers (Roadway for one) still wanted the 6-71E, so GMC continued to build the old D-860 through 1962. In 1963 GMC stuffed the 6-71E into the DB-7000 creating the DBI-7000, which finally replaced the D-860.

Through the magic of torque management, it's probably rare the engine will actually make that kind of power in service. Still, impressive numbers.

I always though Autocar and LeRoi V-8's were quite a pair too!

Have not seen a clutch yet that can beat a torque convertor in applications such as these.

Really like the dash and instrument cluster.

White definitely was after the REO V-8 and OHV 6's to replace their old 'Mustang' flatheads. The 'Giesel' was the gasoline conversion of the Cummins 555 diesel. I thought White came out with the Giesel to replace the REO V-8 after White sold Diamond-REO off. Diamond-REO kept the REO engine plant in Lansing, and continued to make the engines for a few years after they left White before they went out of business. I was told there were a few White 4000's built with GMC gas V-6's after White sold Diamond-REO before the Giesel came out. Anyone ever seen one?

The 637 was an odd-ball, actually a gasoline conversion of the 637 Toro-Flow V-8 diesel. Had the combustion chambers in the pistons like a diesel. I knew a guy that thought the world of them, but I think the 637's he drove had 10 speeds. I remember him saying they needed to spin, if you kept the r.p.m.'s up they made all kinds of power.

I seem to also remember some sort of scandal with Bering's U.S. distributorship. A few of the trucks were sold here, I heard they seemed to be pretty good. Thought they had a future.

Remember Bering?

I drove a Fleetstar once that had a 537 V-8 in it, sort of an improved 549 I guess. Truck had a 5X4 in it, geared really short. I wasn't the best at driving a 5X4, but I could make it pull pretty hard. Don't know what the issues were, but I remember hearing the big International V-8's were not the most reliable big gassers. The company I work for had a bunch of 534 Fords back in the day. Last one I remember seeing was a 70-something LT-900. I never got a chance to drive it, but never heard anything bad about it. I know by then the 534's didn't make a whole lot of power due to emissions, which was why they were dropped a couple of years after the Lima 429 came out. The 429's were great, only problems I ever saw with those were the cams going flat and the oil pump pickups falling off. Even that wasn't much of an issue if the driver shut it off quick enough. Outside of the 413/EN414, my favorite big gassers were the GMC 401 and 478 V-6's. That 702 V-12 must have really been a monster. Always wanted to drive a REO V-8, heard they were pretty good.